Pharos Launches Mediator at IBC

1 September 2005

Making its worldwide debut at IBC2005, the Pharos Mediator media
management system enables a complete terrestrial, satellite or cable
broadcast channel to be controlled and operated from a remote
internet terminal. Scaleable for use by a single member of staff up to
a team of thousands, it gives users of third-party broadcast playout
services complete access to remotely stored content and full control
over its preparation for transmission. The Mediator GUI itself is
exceptionally easy to operate, based on screens which are both
staff-specific and context-specific. Operators are prompted to enter
exactly the required information for each specific task rather than
having to click on pseudo-machine-controls.

Pharos Technical Director Spencer Rodd explains:

"Mediator allows broadcasters to react quickly to changing events while
still enjoying the commercial benefits of employing a third-party playout
facility. Mediator takes full advantage of content-driven software to
generate control screens which are outstandingly easy to operate. The
system keeps track of the state of each item and how much
processing it requires before it is required for transmission. Rather
than imposing a workflow on the user, Mediator gives its users the
flexibility to work through their tasklist in whatever order they
choose."

Pharos Mediator is based on a highly-scalable J2EE enterprise-class
server environment allowing simultaneous access from several
thousand operator workstations without slowing down. Each operator
can view any programme or clip in the channel's archive, either in
browse quality or at full resolution for quality-assurance.

Mediator provides all the resources needed to monitor and track
workflow and process across a large media centre. It can perform
automated ingest and transfer, automated transcoding and
low-resolution previewing under web browser control. Mediator can
also link disparate systems, audit library content bookings and tape
movements, and handle the distribution of content for multi-channel
multi-language services.

Pharos launches Mediator at IBC

Making its worldwide debut at IBC2005, the Pharos Mediator media
management system enables a complete terrestrial, satellite or cable
broadcast channel to be controlled and operated from a remote
internet terminal. Scaleable for use by a single member of staff up to
a team of thousands, it gives users of third-party broadcast playout
services complete access to remotely stored content and full control
over its preparation for transmission. The Mediator GUI itself is
exceptionally easy to operate, based on screens which are both
staff-specific and context-specific. Operators are prompted to enter
exactly the required information for each specific task rather than
having to click on pseudo-machine-controls.

Pharos Technical Director Spencer Rodd explains:

"Mediator allows broadcasters to react quickly to changing events while
still enjoying the commercial benefits of employing a third-party playout
facility. Mediator takes full advantage of content-driven software to
generate control screens which are outstandingly easy to operate. The
system keeps track of the state of each item and how much processing it
needs before it is required for transmission. Rather than imposing a
workflow on the user, Mediator gives its users the flexibility to work
through their tasklist in whatever order they choose."

* Reflection browse system

Pharos Communications announces a new addition to its range of
media publishing solutions. Reflection is an MPEG4-based browse
system with a wide range of applications in programme production,
scheduling, compliance and transmission. Easy to install, configure
and use, it is designed to operate in tandem with a video server.
Reflection creates MPEG4 copies of all stored clips and any new
incoming video files. These can be viewed by up to 20 users
simultaneously on existing desktop PCs running Mac or Windows
operating systems. Browse files are stored on a 250 gigabyte disk
drive integral to Reflection's compact 1U x 600 mm chassis. This can
be expanded to 500 gigabytes. Reflection generates a unique web
page for every file on the main server, enabling rapid integration with
media management systems and other intranet-based applications.
Easy to set up and configure, Reflection is compatible with video
servers handling MPEG2, DV25, DV50 and uncompressed signal
formats. Source material can be accessed via FTP or file sharing.
Browse files are created at user-configurable quality levels of up to
2 megabit/s and sent in RTSP (Real Time Streaming Protocol).
Timecode or counter data can be incorporated in the browse stream.
Each Reflection chassis has two gigabit-ethernet ports.

* Pharos Transcoder file converter

Pharos Transcoder enables video files to be converted quickly and
easily between a wide range of file formats. Source files are displayed
on a browser-driven control screen. Transcoding is activated by
dragging and dropping files between source and destination format
folders. Files can be converted in any order between MPEG1, MPEG2,
MPEG4, DV, 4:2:2, 4:2:0 and uncompressed. Output bit-rate is
user-assignable. Applications of Pharos Transcoder include
downconverting broadcast-quality content for internet-based
distribution, upconverting internet-delivered ENG feeds, and a wide
variety of file-format interchange tasks in programme production,
post-production and playout. Pharos Transcoder occupies a compact
1U x 600 mm chassis and is controlled via a standard browser. It is
available now.

* Pharos Rewrapper MPEG2 processor

A new addition to the Pharos Communications range of media
publishing solutions, Rewrapper enables MPEG2 metadata to be
matched precisely between different video servers. This eliminates
the need for slow and lossy decompression and recompression
processing of the video and audio data stream. Pharos Rewrapper is
ideal wherever a mixed family of video servers is in use, such as a
television post-production house or broadcast playout centre, or
where full MPEG2 file interchange is required between servers and
edit stations or graphics suites. Initial configuration can be performed
quickly and easily via a standard web browser. Operation is then fully
automatic, including file format recognition, rewrapping and registration.
Vertical-blanking interval data is fully preserved. Rewrapper is also
equipped to shuffle audio channels such as multi-language tracks. It
occupies a compact 1U x 600 mm.

Pharos Communications (www.pharos-comms.com) delivers simple,
scaleable and secure systems for production facilities, broadcasters and
playout centres. Simple to understand, maintain and configure. Scaleable
to meet changing business patterns. Secured with eight years
development on a robust platform, full backwards-compatibility
and 24/7 support.